AREA HISTORY:  Indian Relics, Lewisberry, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Abby Bowman

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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INDIAN RELICS, Page 634

Indian Relics.-Along the crystal waters of Bennett’s Run, here and there, Indian 
relics can still be found.  The writer himself searched for them and found some 
beautifully formed arrow heads on the farm of Rankin Potts; as many as 200 were 
found in one cluster.  Originally they were slightly covered by the loose earth, 
a few protruded which led to the precious discovery.  For nearly 200 years they 
were thus concealed, being placed in that position by the sagacious hand of the 
wily red man, whose skillful archery applied them to war and the chase.  Four 
miles southwest of Lewisberry, on the Conewago, is a small spot called the 
“Indian Island,” on which the oldest citizens of the vicinity distinctly 
remember a number of plainly marked Indian graves.  Parts of skeletons were 
found, which physicians indentified as Indian.  Tradition has it they were in a 
sitting posture, as was the Indian custom, with the implements of the chase 
placed in the grave.

Indian “Davy,” a civilized red man, and a noted hunter, lived somewhere along 
the South Mountain and visited Lewisberry as late as 1822.  He was a noted 
marksman.  It is said of him that he could hit a sixpence with a ball at a 
distance of fifty yards, if he were allowed to keep it.  His visit caused much 
interest and amusement to the inhabitants.